Finding The GOAT Group: ONYX vs. M.O.P. Who Is Better?

“Finding the GOAT Group,” the fourth installment of Ambrosia For Heads’s annual battle series features Hip-Hop’s greatest collectives vying for the #1 spot. Sixty-two groups have been pre-selected by a panel of experts, and one slot will be reserved for a wild-card entry, including the possibility for write-in candidates, to ensure no deserving band of MCs and DJs is neglected. The 2018 contest consists of seven rounds, NCAA basketball-tournament style, leading to a Top 32, then the Sweet 16 and so on, until one winner is determined. For each battle, two groups are pitted against one another with a ballot to decide which one advances to the next round. Though there will be an enormous amount of debate in comments, on social media, in barbershops and text messages, which we encourage, only votes cast in the official ballot (below) count.

The next battle is between two of the loudest, most menacing, and definitively New York City groups of the last 25 years. Each had a hardcore hit go mainstream and remain on Hip-Hop playlists ever since. Two years ago, these groups considered an M.O.P.vs. ONYX album. Hardcore Hip-Hop fans get a chance to answer that question now.

The Queens quartet initially consisting of MCs Sticky Fingaz, Fredro Starr, Sonny Seeza, and Big DS (who passed away in 2003) was formed in the late 1980s, but it would be their 1993 debut LP that officially put them on the Rap map. Bacdafucup and the songs “Throw Ya Gunz” and “Slam” exemplified their taste for violent rhymes and hostile persona. Despite the ruggedness, the latter single crossed over,and set the table for careers far beyond music. ONYX’s sophomore LP, All We Got Iz Us, took on an even more sinister tone and helped create a precedent for horrorcore Hip-hop on the East Coast. In the last 20 years, ONYX has been prolific with keeping the masses fed, and mad. The bald-head collective became figureheads to a movement in ’90s East Coast Hip-Hop, and their better songs slam in the playlists of the masses today.

M.O.P.

Mash Out Posse has been true to its word for 25 years. The Brooklyn duo of Billy Danze and Lil Fame made their mark on Hip-Hop beginning in 1993 with their single “How About Some Hardcore.” They’ve answered that question ever since. M.O.P.’s longevity though that could be considered their most impressive trait. However, the duo also produced, in addition to relationships with top producers like DJ Premier. The First Family squad (and Gang Starr extended family members) collected major props with their fourth and best-selling LP Warriorz, which bridged Brownsville with the mainstream. Although Roc-A-Fella and G-Unit tenures did little to expand the brand, Bill and Fizzy made it happen for themselves, as pillars of take-no-shorts Rap music that fits with Metal, boom-bap, and some of the ruggedest tracks the genre of Hip-Hop has ever heard.